The Balloon Boy

The adolescents were running with purpose. Several intricate strategies were being utilized. It was a vicious game of Capture the Flag.

A girl was trapped in jail. "Someone come and tag me!" She cried, but no one came.

A blue helium balloon, almost deflated, drifted by on the summer wind. The balloon was beyond her reach. She watched it float across the playing field, towards the parking lot.

One boy from her team left the game, and drifted after the balloon. He was thirteen and over six feet tall. He was unused to his recent growth and moved strangely, his top half lobbing along in front of his lower. He followed the ball past the first car in the parking lot, a red Toyota, then the second car. He lurched forward and poked the balloon up into the air. It floated back down onto his outstretched finger.

He turned back towards to the game, prodding and pushing the balloon along with him. He walked more slowly and carefully now, engaged in a complex dance with the balloon and eventually he reentered the playing field.

Madness continued around him, the air dense with frenzied directions of how to break enemy lines. The boy ambled through the game play, keeping the balloon afloat. Where others hurried haphazardly, he now maintained a comfortable rhythm with his blue partner.

One of her team members broke through and tagged her, "I got you! Run! Run!"

The girl stood, transfixed. If he had led her into a mountain, she would have followed.